2007 Articles Index
America Can Be Better
Mayor Ray-cist Nagin
At It Again
Slow Recovery of New Orleans Is a Plot
In his Chocolate City speech of January 16, 2006, Ray Nagin had this to say: "We as black people, it's time. It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild a new Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying, uptown or wherever they are, this city will be chocolate at the end of the day."
Naturally, anyone who dared to suggest that this might be a racist reference to a preference for a black majority was instantly labelled a racist. Nagin has been given a complete pass and defended widely against any charge of racism.
Now, in case there was any doubt remaining about his completely racist view of all matters, he lays out for us his theory on the New Orleans recovery in these terms: "They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community."
So, the slowness of the recovery has nothing to do with the possibility that no one wants to move back into flood-prone areas, nothing to do with realizing that perhaps it is better not to rebuild where no one should have built to begin with, nothing to do with anyone having found it appealing to live in a less crime- or corruption-riddled city and preferring to stay away. None of these things explains any of the problem with recovery.
It's all a plot, specifically a plot to change "the electoral process in that community." In Nagin's racist conspiracy theory, "they dispersed all of our people across 44 states with one-way tickets."
It doesn't seem necessary to comment on such statements. How could anyone need the least guidance in seeing what this man is about?
America can be better, much much better, and one sign of that day's approaching will be that comments such as these do not spark yet another round of racially based accusations, but instead are met by a cross-racial, national belly-laugh and a sympathetic shake of the head as we all wonder what on earth this poor man's life must be like to produce delusions of this magnitude. That day will come sooner if we can just make sure that it is all delusion. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could be absolutely certain that there is no substance whatsoever to his plot theory?
